ACS Nano: Professor Ren Tianling of Tsinghua University has made important progress in the research of biomimetic graphene pressure sensor

Recently, Professor Ren Tianling, Department of microelectronics, Tsinghua University, published on ACS Nano a report entitled "epidermis microstructural inspired graphene pressure sensor with random distributed spinosum for high sensitivity and large In the research paper of linearity, a similar bionic structure is proposed based on the human skin sensing microstructure The contradiction between sensitivity and linear range is solved through the combination of microstructure and distribution mode, which provides a new idea for the comprehensive improvement of mechanical device performance In recent years, flexible mechanical micro nano sensors, especially in the monitoring and detection of human physiological information, have become a research hotspot in the academic field At the same time, a large number of related industrial companies have been established Compared with traditional silicon-based devices, they are widely used in the monitoring of physical and chemical activities of human body due to their comfort, fit and wearability However, the contradiction between sensitivity and linearity, two important indicators of mechanical devices, has not been well resolved Generally, the fabricated devices need to sacrifice one index to serve for the promotion of another, which often limits the scope of their practical application, and solving this contradiction becomes a research difficulty Schematic diagram of skin microstructure, photos of skin microstructure and bionic structure, comparison of linearity and sensitivity with previous work performance, wrist pulse and respiratory monitoring results (source: Tsinghua University) Based on the high sensitive response of human skin, especially fingertips to different stress, Ren Tianling group proposed the preparation of similar structure according to the research of its microstructure A pressure sensor with needled shape and random distribution was fabricated by using sand paper as a flexible substrate and graphene oxide as a mechanical sensitive layer after reduction at high temperature The sensor shows excellent stability, fast response and low detection limit, and achieves high sensitivity in a wider linear measurement range Among them, the contact area mutation between acupuncture structures mainly contributes to high sensitivity, and the random distribution mainly contributes to a wide linear range, which solves the contradiction to a large extent through the combination of the two Because of the high sensitivity and wide linear range of the sensor, the research group has successfully applied it to the monitoring of various physiological activities of human body, such as pulse, breath and voice recognition, as well as to the monitoring of walking, running, jumping and other walking posture, as well as the monitoring of walking gait Using wearable high-performance sensors to obtain various physiological parameters of human body will have important practical significance in personal health and medical treatment, and will have great application prospects The research results are supported by key projects of NSFC and projects of the Ministry of science and technology Paper link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.7b07613 profile of Professor Ren Tianling: http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/ime/5910/2015/2015035125642610344584/2015035125642610344584/2015035125642610344584